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Supporters say kids are better served by traditional high schools with extra supports.

Advocates for children joined students at the Capitol on Monday to talk about new legislative proposals aimed at keeping teenagers in high school and out of adult education. WNPR’s Diane Orson reports.

More and more over-age and under achieving students are being urged to leave traditional high schools and enter adult education says Josh Michtom, staff attorney for the Center for Children’s Advocacy. He says struggling kids who end up in adult ed rarely succeed. He’d like the practice stopped, except in extraordinary circumstances.

"The teenagers I see being pushed to adult ed are teenagers who are not motivated, who have attendance problems, who have discipline problems. And adult ed asks students to take responsibility for themselves. So to put them in a program where we ask as much of them as we ask of 30 and 40 year olds is recipe for failure."

State officials track the number of students who leave high school for adult ed, but it can be hard to finish out how many actually finish. 17-year old Tishana Jones of New Haven says too many of her peers are dropping out.

"It seems like society now is ok with kids dropping out of school because they do nothing to persuade them to stay. And its not ok."

Connecticut students are entitled to stay in public education until age 21. Advocates say kids are better served by traditional high schools with extra supports.